Occupational health and safety news and guidance

Two Nottingham companies have been fined after a worker fell more than nine metres, injuring his back.

The 38-year-old employee of M-tech Engineering Limited fell from a
mobile tower scaffold being used to install a steel staircase at a
building in Convent Street, Nottingham, on 15 April 2009.

He fractured two vertebrae and was off work for almost seven months.

The building was undergoing extensive refurbishment. Thomas Long
& Sons Limited were the principal contractor and M-tech Engineering
Limited had been contracted to install the staircase.

The system of work was developed by M-tech Engineering.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the scaffold
tower had not been erected to the manufacturer's instructions or
industry guidelines, the tower was supported on a platform that was not
sufficiently rigid to provide a suitable base and the working platform
was not fitted with adequate guardrails to prevent falls.

M-tech Engineering Limited, of Third Avenue, Greasley, Bulwell,
Nottingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and
Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for failing to ensure the health, safety and
welfare of its employees. Today, Nottingham magistrates fined the
company £8,000 and ordered it to pay costs of £4,000.

Thomas Long & Sons Limited, of Mile End Road, Colwick, Nottingham
pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction
(Design and Management) Regulations 2007 for failing to plan, manage and
monitor construction in a way that ensured it was carried out without
risks to health and safety. Magistrates fined the company £6,000 with
costs of £3,000.